[Liz]

I got this from a friend named Margot Orenchuk. I think it makes good sense.

here is a response from CART after I sent them a message complaining about the Honda Indy 300, they manage to make it sound reasonably good, but I still think they should've done better...

Hello,
Thank you for your comments. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. We wanted to discuss the topic with CART before providing you with a response.

Cars are not required to pit once the white flag is shown. The white flag is only displayed after the competitors have completed the required number of pit stops (in this case three based on the original race length of 70 laps). Thus, the white flag would not be displayed in the shortened race no matter if it was going to be 50 laps, 41 laps or 36 laps and the cars would have to satisfy the maximum pit interval rule. To satisfy the rule, the cars must cross start/finish in pit lane on or before their scheduled pit stop lap. In the case of this race, cars 39 and 11 would have been
required to cross start/finish in pit lane on or before Lap 36.


The goal of a race is to complete the race as quickly as possible, but not to end the race as soon as possible. In this case, every effort was made to continue the race until Lap 50 as declared before the restart of the race. To arbitrarily end the race any sooner than necessary would have been unfair. Once it was clear that the weather
was not going to allow a return to green flag racing and that conditions would not allow the completion of the race, race control attempted to complete 41 laps conditions permitting. This would ensure that every competitor had to make at least the required number of pit stops (2) and thus had the same opportunity to pass or be passed while making a pit stop. Some competitors gambled that the race would end on Lap 36, others gambled that the race would go
longer. No competitor was actually penalized for extending the race, although they were not rewarded for their pit strategy which is what they were hoping for. Some competitors took more than the required 2 pit stops. The race was not stopped as soon as it was technically possible to do so.

With the wet track conditions and diminishing daylight, the race would not be able to run to the schedule 50 laps. The choice of Lap 41 was made to ensure that all competitors would make at least the required minimum number of pit stops. As always, the goal was conditional on it being safe to do so. As it turned out, the race was called on Lap 40 because of darkness.

Sorry, Mikey. It wasn't a conspiracy to make you look bad. Sorry, Dario, it wasn't to punish you for being a stupid git.

It was just a boring old adminstrative decision.